Getting Started

This is our first foray into blogging, so please be patient with the hiccups as we try to figure out how this works...

My husband and I wanted to write a blog to share about our experiences in Nicaragua, but also to share our story, which is a love story.

To start, we found out we would be moving to Nicaragua December 6th, 2010. And we moved here less than a month later in January, 2011. My husband came first on the 2nd. We, our son, myself and my mom who was coming to help us get settled, were supposed to come on the 3rd. Unfortunately the movers packed my passport ... I think... or it may have been in the old printer I donated to Salvation Army. Either way I had no passport on January 2nd and spent the 3rd in Washington DC getting perhaps the fastest passport in US history -- in at 8:30; new passport by 11:45! Crazy but true!

We moved to Nicaragua because I am working with a US based NGO (non governmental organization) here in Managua. Though I love the job and am thrilled to be together as a family it was hard to move here, but that is part of the story ...

My husband, R,  is El Salvadorian. The short version of the story is that we have been pursing  visa for him for almost three years now, unsuccessfully, and decided that with our son a little over a year old that it was time to be together where ever that would be possible (not in the United States). The longer version is a whole 'nother post.

We were all here in Nicaragua for the first time in December for my final interview (which clearly I nailed, wink ;). R did an advance scouting trip by coming back a week later to find us a house and he did a great job! My job was to find international movers and ship our stuff -- which is still not here yet, so I guess he did the better job there. One month of sleeping on an air mattress is not very fun. In fact until this weekend we didnt have any furniture other than the air mattress and the baby's travel crib.

Now at least we have patio furniture, but the funny thing is that the furniture looks HUGE! I think we've gotten so used to all of the open space it just seems weird to have anything taking up any of the space. But the baby, G, is loving it! He is so close to walking and he is thrilled to have things to hold onto to move around (although he had been walking circles around me holding onto me while I was sitting, and using the swinging gates on the doors to move around).

Other than the furniture issue we are all adjusting well -- R is full-time caregiver to G now which has been an adjustment for both of them, but they are so sweet together and after months of Skype and watching my baby light up hearing his daddy's voice over the phone, it is bliss to see them together.

Oh the Skype stories I could tell -- from "dates", to G's birth, to daily chats, family holidays and G's birthday party, Skype and the computer have been constant companions (they aren't even paying me to say that!). Seriously -- when I think about how communication with my family when I was in Peace Corps or studying abroad I am so so thankful for Skype.

So we are all adjusting -- R& I to being together, actually living together as a married couple, being parents together; G to spending so much good time with his daddy; and all of us to Nicaragua.

This is our story, and we hope you'll share it with us!